Hover Tanking

[silverpeacock]

I have not been playing for a while, since before the tank changes.

 

With the range and target expansion for cones, it seems logical that hover tanking would be more common.  Is it a thing that I just haven't seen yet?

[Psyonico]

I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say "Hover Tanking"  I have a couple of tanks that take Hover for the defense bonus, the problem is, it slows you down a fair amount, so you also have to build for +movement speed.

[Zect]

1. Mobs don't like to be kited. You hover, they spaz out and jump all over the place in an attempt to get you. This is counter to the current meta, which is tightly packed mobs that stand still in burn/debuff patches and die.
2. The best aoes are still all pbaoes. Foot stomp, burn, spin, whirling smash etc.
3. Hovering means not taking advantage of auras such as invulnerability, rttc, aao, beta decay etc and less saturated buff powers and heals such as soul drain, dark regen etc.
4. Hovering means not taking full advantage of ally buffs and heals such as FS, overgrowth, transfusion, world of pain, etc.
5. Few tanks can muster a full aoe attack chain from range. Not mixing in your best ST attacks like KO blow is a dps loss.
6. Power creep has resulted in so much defensive power in the system that hovering as a means of mitigation is superfluous. It would be like putting a hardhat on Superman to protect him on a construction site. If you need to hover to survive on an IO build, that is a symptom of severe build design errors. Stop flying and fix your build.

There are certain niche uses for hovertanking, but these are specific strategies for particular situations. One is to separate flying mobs from non-flying mobs. For example, in 4-star hard mode aeon SF 8 vanguard heroes encounter, only incandescent and hero 1 fly. If you attempt to brainlessly facetank all 8 heroes in a big mob, hero 1 will taunt, prevent the team from focusing down incandescent, who will then wipe stupid players with her lambent light. If you attempt to tank hero 1 and the other 7 separately, it's very easy to miss critical buffs and heals - and you won't survive without them. Hovertaking hero 1 on top of the party easily allows enough separation that hero 1 cannot taunt the other players but the tank can receive buffs and heals such as transfusion.

 

P.S. they fixed the MLTF lord recluse hovertank cheese, too.

[silverpeacock]

Thanks, Zect and Psyonico!  It was just a stray thought and you really gave me a great explanation why I don't see it.  I appreciate your insight.

[Yomo Kimyata]

That said, the new battle axe is great for it.

[Psyonico]

To bounce off of what @Zect said, even my tanks that take hover stay close to the ground for various reasons.  Whether it be because Foot Stomp only works when you're close to the ground, or Invincibility, or whatever other power I may have that I need more mobs close to me to get.

[Snarky]

My Tank, a Dark Dark Nosferatu…has Fly on 98% time.  That said he is normally exactly where he would be if he is walking.  It just really helps me maneuver through the 3D environments.  

[ZemX]

13 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

That said, the new battle axe is great for it.

 

Is it?  I've tried jumping in the air with CJ while keying Cyclone and it seems to scatter enemies all over the place.   Unless by "great" you just meant "funny".  Or does it do something different while hovering in place vs. while jumping upwards?

[Yomo Kimyata]

I made a concept build for a hover axe ninja scrapper.  Since the new pendulum is a 7' radius sphere with a 7' range, all you need to do is hover seven feet over the nearest target.  Since they bunch up underneath you that radius will hit everyone it can.  Axe Cyclone and Cleave cover that range as well.  so it works for safety and for bunching up mobs.